ai4bharat/Pralekha huggingface dataset:
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
Refrain from using scandalous headlines, Ministry issues advisory to private channels
TV debates using unparliamentary language, journalists making fabricated claims: Advisory
Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has today advised private TV news channels against making false claims and using scandalous headlines. In a detailed advisory issued today, the Ministry has called for adherence to the provisions of Section 20 of The Cable Television Networks  Act, 1995 including to the Programme Code laid down under it.
The Ministry has found that in the recent past several Satellite TV channels have carried out coverage of events and incidents in a manner which appears to be unauthentic, misleading, sensational and using socially unacceptable language and remarks, offending good taste and decency, and obscene and defamatory and having communal overtones. The advisory has cited the Ukraine-Russian conflict and the incidence in North-West Delhi in particular where TV news content and debates have been found in violation of Programme Code.
While in the case of reporting on Ukraine-Russia conflict the Ministry has found channels making scandalous headlines unrelated to the news item and journalists making unsubstantiated and fabricated claims and using hyperbole in order to incite audience, in case of Delhi violence, certain channels have aired news items with provocative headlines and videos of violence that may incite communal hatred among the communities and disrupt peace and law and order. The channels have further fabricated headlines giving communal colour to actions of authorities.
The Ministry has noted and also cautioned private TV channels against broadcasting debates having unparliamentary, provocative and socially unacceptable language, communal remarks and derogatory references which may have a negative psychological impact on viewers and may also incite communal disharmony and disturb the peace at large.
Citing these instances of violation, the Ministry has today expressed serious concern over the programmes aired and strongly advised against violation of provisions of The Cable Television Networks  Act, 1995 and the rules under it.
The advisory is available on the website of Ministry of I&B at www.mib.gov.in
Ministry of Finance
Auction for Sale  of Government Stocks
Government of India has announced the Sale  of  ‘7.32 per cent Government Stock, 2024’ for a notified amount of Rs. 3,000 crore  through price based auction,  ‘‘7.26 per cent Government Stock, 2029’ for a notified amount of Rs. 4,000 crore  through price based auction,  ‘8.24 per cent Government Stock, 2033’ for a notified amount of Rs. 2,000 crore  through price based auction, and  ‘8.17 per cent Government Stock, 2044’ for a notified amount of Rs. 3,000 crore  through price based auction. Subject to the limit of Rs. 12,000 crore, being total notified amount, GoI will have the option to retain additional subscription up to Rs. 1,000 crore each against any one or more of the above securities. The auctions will be conducted using multiple price method. The auctions will be conducted by the Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai Office, Fort, Mumbai on February 22, 2019 .
Up to 5% of the notified amount of the sale of the stocks will be allotted to eligible individuals and Institutions as per the Scheme for Non-Competitive Bidding Facility in the Auction of Government Securities.
Both competitive and non-competitive bids for the auction should be submitted in electronic format on the Reserve Bank of India Core Banking Solution  system on February 22, 2019. The non-competitive bids should be submitted between 11.30 a.m. and 12.00 noon and the competitive bids should be submitted between 11.30 a.m. and 12.30 p.m.
The result of the auctions will be announced on February 22, 2019  and payment by successful bidders will be on February 25, 2019 .
The Stocks will be eligible for “When Issued” trading in accordance with the guidelines on ‘When Issued transactions in Central Government Securities’ issued by the Reserve Bank of India vide circular No. RBI/2018-19/25 dated July 24, 2018 as amended from time to time.
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Status of forest cover in the Country
Forest Survey of India , Dehradun, an organization under the Ministry, carries out the assessment of forest cover of the country biennially since 1987 and the findings are published in India State of Forest Report . The forest cover assessment is a wall-to-wall mapping exercise based on remote sensing supported by intensive ground verification and field data from National Forest Inventory. As per the latest ISFR 2021, the total forest cover of the country has increased by 12,294 square kilometres in the last seven years .
The details of forest cover of the country in the last seven years  and change in forest cover w.r.t. previous assessments are given in the table below:-

|
|
ISFR Years
|
|
Total Forest Cover
|
|
Changes in forest cover w.r.t. previous ISFR
|
|
Change in percentage
|
|
ISFR 2015
|
|
7,01,495
|
|
-
|
|
-
|
|
ISFR 2017
|
|
7,08,273
|
|
6,778
|
|
0.21
|
|
ISFR 2019
|
|
7,12,249
|
|
3,976
|
|
0.56
|
|
ISFR 2021
|
|
7,13,789
|
|
1,540
|
|
0.22
This information was given by Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change in Rajya Sabha today.
Prime Minister's Office
On the eve of Teachers’ Day, PM interacts with winners of National Teachers’ Award 2023
PM emphasised the need of educating children about the success of grassroot achievers
Celebrate culture and diversity of different parts of the country in schools: PM
PM underscored the importance of encouraging curiosity in students
On the eve of Teachers’ Day, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi interacted with the winners of National Teachers’ Award 2023 at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg earlier today. 75 award winners participated in the interaction.
Prime Minister appreciated the efforts of teachers in nurturing the young minds of the country. He highlighted the importance of good teachers and the role they can play in shaping the destiny of the country. He emphasised the importance of inspiring children by educating them about the success of the grassroot achievers.
Prime Minister talked about taking pride in our local heritage and history and urged the teachers to inspire students to learn about their region's history and culture. Highlighting the strength of diversity in the country, he requested the teachers to celebrate the culture and diversity of different parts of the country in their schools.
Discussing the recent success of Chandrayaan-3, Prime Minister underscored the importance of encouraging curiosity in students about science and technology as the 21st century is a technology driven century. He also talked about the importance of skilling the youth and making them future ready.
Talking about Mission LiFE, Prime Minister discussed the importance of recycling as opposed to the use and throw culture. Several teachers also briefed the Prime Minister about the Swachhata programmes being held in their schools. Further, Prime Minister advised teachers to constantly learn and upgrade their skills throughout their career.
The purpose of the National Teachers’ Award is to celebrate the unique contribution of some of the finest teachers in the country and to honour those teachers who, through their commitment, have not only improved the quality of education but also enriched the lives of their students. This year, the scope of the award has been expanded from earlier including teachers selected by Department of School Education & Literacy to now also including teachers selected by Department of Higher Education and Ministry of Skill Development.
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh says, new agriculture reforms will bring ease of living for Indian farmers living in far flung, remote and hilly areas
Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that the new agriculture reforms will bring ease of living for Indian farmers, particularly for those living in far flung, remote and hilly areas.
During an interaction with farmers, Sarpanches, Panches and local activists of Panchayats falling under different blocks of district Ramban and Udhampur respectively, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the new farm legislation is a revolutionary new opening for the farming community, particularly for the farmers living in remote areas and border areas, who are faced with constraints of inaccessibility and lack of transport. The new arrangements will open up alternative options for them, he said.
Many of the farmers in the past, said Dr Jitendra Singh, stored their crop after harvesting and waited for some middle - man to pick it up and carry it to the market because they did not have sufficient means or resources for that.
- However, he said, under the new arrangement, the farmer will be able to avail the option of arranging a buyer through different sources or even entering into a contract agreement for farming.
Contrary to the propaganda by the opposition parties that the Modi government is inclined to close down the existing Agricultural Produce and Livestock Market Committee  Centers and Mandies, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the matter of the fact is that the process of opening new centres is going on even today at different places depending upon the requirement and the demand. However, he said, the young educated and tech-savvy agriculturist of today cannot be tied down by the earlier arrangement and deserves the freedom to exercise his option.
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Ministry of Defence
Bilateral Talks on Defence between India and Indonesia
The Bilateral Defence Minister’s Dialogue between India and Indonesia was successfully concluded in Jakarta, today.
This meeting between Raksha Mantri Smt Nirmala Sitharaman and her Indonesian counterpart Gen  Ryamizard Rycudu comes after both the countries have upgraded their bilateral relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and have recently concluded a new Defence Cooperation Agreement in May 2018.
Smt Nirmala Sitharaman reiterated the sustained and mutually beneficial interactions between India and Indonesia as maritime neighbours with a tradition of close political dialogue, economic and trade linkages as well as cultural and people to people interactions between the two nations.
Conveying satisfaction on the military to military interactions, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman noted that the commencement of bilateral Naval and Air Force exercises as well as the regular conduct of Staff Talks between the three Services sets a strong foundation for bilateral defence cooperation between the Armed Forces of the two countries. In line with the elevation of relationship between the two countries to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the two sides discussed areas of enhancing cooperation, including strengthening maritime and coastal security, through improved information sharing and conduct of specialised training courses. India welcomed Indonesia’s support for the proposal to partner in the Malacca Straits Patrol.
Potential areas of cooperation in the field of defence industries and defence R&D were also identified between the two countries. Both the Ministers agreed to set up Working Groups to progress the mutually agreed areas of bilateral defence engagements and desired that these Working Groups meet at the earliest opportunity in India.
Raksha Mantri Smt Nirmala Sitharaman met Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Gen  Luhut Panjaitan and Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Gen  Wiranto. During these meetings, issues of strategic interest and potential areas of bilateral defence cooperation were discussed and agreed to.
As part of her programme, Raksha Mantri Smt Sitharaman also laid a wreath at the Memorial in Jakarta for the Indian soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice in Indonesia during World War II.
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Ministry of Commerce & Industry
5th India-Vietnam Joint Trade Sub-Commission meeting in New Delhi
Both sides agree to explore direct shipping services, collaboration in freight movement and improving air connectivity to overcome logistics challenges
The 5th meeting of India-Vietnam Joint Trade Sub-Commission  was held in New Delhi today. The meeting was co-chaired by the Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Shri Rajesh Agrawal from the Indian side and Deputy Minister, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ms. Phan Thi Thang from the Vietnam side. This meeting was held after a gap of more than four years since 4th JTSC meeting held in January 2019, on account of COVID-19 pandemic and other factors.
Vietnam is the 23rd largest global trade partner of India and the 5th largest among ASEAN countries with bilateral trade of USD 14.70 Bn during 2022-23. Vietnam accounts for 11.2% of India’s total trade with ASEAN. Vietnam is an important destination for India’s iron & steel and agricultural and animal products mainly meat products, animal fodder, cereals and marine products.
Both sides reviewed the progress on bilateral trade and economic cooperation and discussed ways to unlock the vast untapped potential in bilateral trade to enable the business communities from the two sides to benefit from the partnership of two of the fastest growing economies.
Both sides identified potential sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, textiles, footwear, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, fertilizers, machinery and equipment, consumer products, energy and automobile industry, for expanding trade cooperation and agreed to work together to resolve market access issues and technical barriers faced by the exporters through regular and sustained bilateral discussions.
The Indian side raised the issues of pending registration of Indian fishery and meat establishments for export, restricted market access in public procurement of drugs for Indian pharmaceutical companies and high anti-dumping duties imposed on Indian polyster filament yarn products and sorbitol.
The Indian side highlighted the potential in service sector cooperation and suggested cooperation in IT, financial services, education sector, tourism, healthcare, tele-medicine, medical tourism and start-up ecosystem. The Indian side also suggested Mutual Recognition Agreements  on professional services, internationalization of RuPay card, QR based payment system, and domestic currency trade settlement.
Both sides discussed logistics challenges affecting bilateral trade and agreed to continue efforts for exploring direct shipping services, collaboration in freight movement and improving air connectivity.
Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying
Department of AHD implements Rashtriya Gokul Mission for development and conservation of indigenous bovine breeds and genetic upgradation of bovine population
Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing Rashtriya Gokul Mission for development and conservation of indigenous bovine breeds and genetic upgradation of bovine population since December 2014. The scheme is important in enhancing milk production and productivity of bovines to meet growing demand of milk and making dairying more remunerative to the rural farmers of the country. The scheme is continued under revised and realigned schemes of the Department from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with an allocation of Rs.2400 crore.
This information was given by Shri Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
Ministry of Culture
PM to deliver the keynote address on the occasion of Virtual Vesak Global Celebrations on Buddha Purnima
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will deliver the keynote address on the occasion of Virtual Vesak Global Celebrations on Buddha Purnima i.e. on 26th May 2021 at around 09:45 AM.
The event is being organised by the Culture Ministry in collaboration with the International Buddhist Confederation  and will witness participation of all the supreme heads of the Buddhist Sanghas from around the world. Over 50 most prominent Buddhist religious leaders from around the world will address the congregation.
PIB Headquarters
Cyclone Fani: IndianOil assures uninterrupted fuel supply, provides support to cyclone relief centres
In the wake of the cyclone Fani making landfall in Odisha earlier today, IndianOil is fully geared up and ensuring uninterrupted fuel supply from its locations in Odisha and West Bengal on the East coast.
IndianOil’s operations are largely normal across the two eastern states. Adequate stock of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, LPG, Kerosene and aviation fuel is available. The Corporation is also actively assisting the district administration in evacuation, rescue and relief activities.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
Impact of Covid on Persons With Critical Health Issues
As per the latest ‘Sankalak: Status of National AIDS Response’  report of the Government, around 5.56 lakh HIV/AIDS cases have been reported in last three years under HIV testing and counseling services of National AIDS Control Programme in country.
The year-wise details of the same are as below:
|
|
Financial Year
|
|
Reported cases
|
|
2017-18
|
|
191,947
|
|
2018-19
|
|
187,382
|
|
2019-20
|
|
177,236
The National AIDS Control Organization  has facilitated service provision for HIV/AIDS and related co-morbidities like Tuberculosis during the COVID-19 pandemic to all persons registered with the various facilities under the programme.
NACO issued guidance notes to all State/ Union Territories AIDS Control Societies  to ensure continuity of service provisions as much as possible through differentiated modalities like multi-month dispensation of Anti-retroviral treatment , community-based screening for HIV and decentralized options for management. Necessary actions were taken to ensure unhindered movements of front-line workers and vehicles towards emergency relocations and delivery of medicines to people living with HIV/AIDS.
States were further instructed not to deny medicines if any HIV positive patients were stranded in other States/districts during the pandemic.
NACO also convened several virtual meetings with all stakeholders including community representatives to regularly review and reiterate these instructions.
NACO has also written to all SACS as well as Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for inclusion of PLHIV, and other related populations in social protection schemes.
NACO has not conducted any study on impact of COVID-19 on people suffering from HIV/AIDS.
The Minister of State , Sh. Ashwini Kumar Choubey stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha here today.
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
Five golfers including Aditi Ashok among 10 more athletes added to TOPS
Ace rider Fouaad Mirza, golfers Anirban Lahiri, Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar and Alpine Skier Mohammed Arif Khan are among the 10 athletes added by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports’ Mission Olympic Cell  to the list of athletes who would be provided support under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme.
While these five athletes have been included in the Core group, golfers Shubhankar Sharma and Tvesa Malik and Judokas Yash Ghangas, Unnati Sharma and Linthoi Chanambam have been added to the Development group. These additions take the number of athletes under TOPS to 301, including 107 in the Core group.
The Ministry primarily supports elite athletes under the Annual Calendar for Training and Competition  of each National Sports Federation. TOPS provides customised support to athletes in areas not covered under the ACTC and addresses unanticipated needs of the athletes as they prepare to excel in the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Mohammed Arif Khan, hailing from Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir, recently became the first Indian Alpine Skier to qualify for the Winter Olympic Games 2022 to be held in Beijing next month. The MOC approved Rs. 17.46 lakh towards cost of five-week training in Europe and purchase of equipment.
Riding Seigneur Medicott, Fouaad Mirza won the Eventing-individual silver medal in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and finished 23rd in the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year. Based in Germany, he is currently ranked 87 in the world. Astride Mokatoo, the 29-year-old logged in two top-10 finishes in Sopot in September and Pratoni del Vivaro in November.
The 23-year-old Aditi Ashok, hailing from Bengaluru, wrested the nation’s attention in Tokyo2020 after being in medal reckoning throughout the competition. The 21-year-old left-hander Diksha Dagar, who is from Jhajjar in Haryana and is a silver medalist in the 2017 Summer Deaflympics, finished 50th in the Olympic Games last year.
Teenaged Judokas Yash Ghangas , Linthoi Chanambam  and Unnati Sharma  won a silver medal each in the Asia-Oceania Junior Championships in Lebanon, Beirut, last month. Yash Ghangas rose from Panipat in Haryana to express himself on the mat while Lintho Chanambam hails from Manipur and Unnati is from Uttarakhand.
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
The 36th National Games allotted to Goa have been postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic
The 36th National Games allotted to Goa, which was scheduled from 20.10.2020 to 04.11.2020, had been postponeddue to outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Central assistance of Rs.97.80 crore has been released to the Government of Goa for creation / development of sports infrastructure for 36th National Games.
The first Khelo India University Games was successfully conducted at Odisha from 22ndFebruary to 1st March, 2020 with total athlete participation of 3182 from 158 universities in 17 sports disciplines.
Athletes and teams are well aware about the National Games through the State Governments, concerned National Sports Federations, Sports Promotion Boards, etc. Once the dates of National Games are finalised, Indian Olympic Association and the Organizing Committee of National Games use various publicity platforms such as print media, electronic media, social media to promote the National Games among spectators throughout the country.
This information was given by Union Minister of State  for Youth Affairs and Sports, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.